While the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams prepare for Super Bowl LIII, there’s been plenty of activity around the NFL as the other 30 teams evaluate and make adjustments to their coaching staffs. Amid all the Super Bowl hoopla, here’s a rundown of some recent activity you may have missed:

ATLANTA FALCONS:
While head coach Dan Quinn survived a disappointing season, the Falcons did fire all three of their coordinators – offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, defensive coordinator Marquand Manuel and special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong. It would appear that this coming season will be critical for Quinn. Dirk Koetter is the new OC. Quinn takes over as DC. The new special teams coordinator is Ben Kotwica, formerly with the Washington Redskins.

BUFFALO BILLS:
The Bills fired offensive line coach Juan Castillo, which was surprising because he and head coach Sean McDermott have a long history together; they worked on Andy Reid’s staff in Philadelphia from 2001-10. Castillo took over at defensive coordinator for McDermott when McDermott was fired by Reid after the 2010 season. The Bills o-line wasn’t expected to be good and they weren’t. They had to overcome losing a pair of veterans in center Eric Wood and Pro Bowl guard Richie Incognito.

DENVER BRONCOS:
When the Broncos hired Vic Fangio as head coach, it was widely reported that Gary Kubiak — former Broncos head coach and long-time friend of team president John Elway – would become Fangio’s offensive coordinator. Then a few days after Fangio was hired, there was a change of plan. Kubiak surprisingly left Denver to take the OC job with the Minnesota Vikings. Bizarre.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS:
Speaking of bizarre, this was one of the more unexpected moves of the offseason. The Colts offensive line was arguably the most improved offensive line in football and a big reason why the team made the postseason. Yet soon after they lost to the Chiefs in the divisional playoffs, o-line coach Dave DeGuglielmo was fired. This was a surprise.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS:
Running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley, who was fired earlier this month, had been hired by Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone in 2017. Wheatley previously worked on Marrone’s staffs at Syracuse and with the Buffalo Bills. He might have been the fall guy for running back malcontent Leonard Fournette.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS:
The Vikings chose not to renew the contract of special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, who had been with the team since 2011. He is now the special teams coordinator with the Cleveland Browns.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS:
No coach spends more time with the players than the strength staff, and head strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle had been a staple of the team since 2010. He was hired by Pete Carroll at USC in 2009 and followed him to Seattle a year later. This is the second offseason in a row where the Seahawks have made significant changes to core members of the staff that came over from USC. Last year, they fired Kris Richard, who had been the defensive coordinator. This year, Carlisle was let go.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS:
New Bucs head coach Bruce Arians hired Todd McNair to be his running backs coach. McNair, a former NFL player who last coached in 2009 for USC, had been out of coaching since then – perhaps due to his alleged involvement in the Reggie Bush-related scandal at USC. This was a good opportunity for McNair to get back into the game – Arians was McNair’s coach back when he played at Temple.

As in the Colts-Texans AFC Wild Card game earlier in the day, elite defenses again took center stage Saturday night as the Dallas Cowboys held on for a 24-22 win over the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC’s opening game of the NFL postseason.

The Cowboys and Seahawks have very similar defenses, with long, fast, athletic players. Those defenses didn’t disappoint Saturday night, as they controlled the game.

Playing at home, Dallas’ defense did a terrific job of shutting down the Seahawks’ vaunted running game. Without much of a running game, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was forced to improvise, and outside of wide receiver Tyler Lockett, he didn’t have much more help. The Seahawks started slow, but thanks to their elite defense went into halftime down only four.

The Cowboys scored first, taking a 3-0 lead, and subsequently had six opportunities to take control of the game with a two-possession lead. They went 0-for-6, as Seattle’s defense, led by linebacker Bobby Wagner and cornerback Shaquille Griffin, repeatedly thwarted Dallas’ offense.

Dallas was finally able to take control of the game with a 10-point lead late in the fourth quarter after a terrific kick return by wide receiver Tavon Austin.

While Dallas advances to the divisional round, we see a fairly one-dimensional team. It’s a team that is led by a great defense, but supported by an offense that simply isn’t that dynamic. If opposing defensive coordinators center their efforts on stopping running back Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys don’t have enough of a high-powered passing game to threaten anybody to any significant degree. Additionally, it looks as if wide receiver Amari Cooper might have been slightly dinged in this game, and if he is slowed down by any significant degree, then Dallas’ offense will be severely hampered.

There was some scuttlebutt that if Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett lost this game, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones might consider terminating him. With this Victory, however, Garrett is virtually assured of returning in 2019. If that happens, we predict the Cowboys will look for a new offensive coordinator in any event. Current offensive coordinator Scott Linehan has been with the team for some time, and the offense simply does not look as innovative as others. Having said that, the offensive personnel lacks in some key areas, and that is not through any fault of Linehan.

If the Chicago Bears follow through and win at home against the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Will go on the road to New Orleans next week. While the Cowboys defense matches up with the Saints offense, the Saints will have at their disposal in this next go-round wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. Ginn was out with an injury when the Cowboys beat the Saints in Week 13. He is the field stretcher, and his presence will be a difference-maker in the next round for the Saints if they should face the Cowboys.

Key Observations:
• Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable once again deserves a great deal of credit for the way the offensive line performed in this matchup. The Seahawks leaned heavily on running the ball through the middle of the defense. This complemented the play-action passing game and the offense was in a very good rhythm through the night.

• Kansas City displayed impressive play-calling as well. They appeared to key off the Seattle defensive personnel, and ran the ball more when linebacker Shaquem Griffin was in the game. They totaled 31 points in spite of two costly fumbles. The matchup was competitive, the Seahawks just gained an edge in most categories.

• Seattle’s defense deserves a great deal of credit as well. They consistently created pass pressure and confidently played zone as well as man-to-man coverage against the Chiefs renowned skill position group. The defensive philosophy certainly seems to be jelling with this new defensive group so credit to Seattle’s personnel.

• Seattle elected to go for it rather than kick the field goal. The attempt was successful and resulted in a touchdown, but this was a very risky play call for being on the road with a great deal of time left in the game.

Key Observations:

• San Francisco called an impressive game on offense. 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens has often leaned heavily on his tight end George Kittle, and while Kittle was once again productive, there was a noticeable increase in the distribution of targets and receptions amongst other receivers. Credit to San Francisco’s play calling and personnel.

Key Coaching Decision #1: (SEA ball, leading 3-0 / first-and-goal, MIN 3 / 0:16 Q2)
• Oftentimes, coaches can make great decisions — but can be made to look dumb if players don’t properly execute. This was the case here:

• Seattle had already exhausted all of its timeouts, but was nevertheless in perfect position to take a two-possession lead into halftime. On first down, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer smartly called a pass play for quarterback Russell Wilson to get the ball out of his hand quickly. Obviously, with only 16 seconds remaining in the half, either you score a touchdown throwing the ball, or suffer a couple of incompletions and line up for a field goal. In this case, Wilson held onto the ball too long, started scrambling backwards, whirled around and threw a no-look pass that was intercepted. Good play call, bad execution, and the coach has to bear the outcome.

Key Coaching Decision #2: (MIN ball, trailing 3-0 / fourth-and-1, SEA 40 / 2:05 Q3)
• This was the first time in the entire game that the Vikings had progressed into Seahawks territory. Even with such a poor offensive performance up to this point, the Vikings were squarely in this contest due to the brilliant play of their defense. On this particular fourth-and-1 play, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer decided to go for the first down. We felt this was the right call, but we did not agree with the play call, which was a run up the middle with running back Latavius Murray. In our view, there were several things wrong with this decision. First, the Vikings do not have a very physical offensive line. Second, up to this point, the Vikings were not playing a downhill game. We expected a short pass off play-action or some type of rub route. The play was stopped, the Seahawks received a short field, and converted for a field goal and a 6-0 lead.

Key Coaching Decision #3: (MIN ball, trailing 6-0 / fourth-and-goal, SEA 1 / 9:10 Q4)
• Up to this point, the Minnesota defense had played a stellar game and had denied Seattle the opportunity to take a two-possession lead on five consecutive series. Therefore, it was likely that if Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer simply settled for a field goal and a 6-3 deficit, the Vikings defense would get the ball back to its offense for another scoring opportunity. Instead, Zimmer chose to go for the touchdown. Quarterback Kirk Cousins threw an incomplete pass into the end zone, and the Vikings continued to trail 6-0. We strongly disagreed with this decision by Zimmer. First, it was early enough in the fourth quarter. Second, his defense was playing an outstanding game. Third, if the Seahawks were to stop the Vikings in that situation, the Seattle home crowd would only get louder. Fourth, coming away with zero points in that situation is an emotional downer for a team, and that would be risky in a close, hard-fought road game. It’s hard for us to watch games when head coaches actually put their teams in a position to lose, and we felt Zimmer did this with his decision in this circumstance.

Key observations:
• Seattle running back Chris Carson may not be the fastest back in the league nor the shiftiest, but we believe he certainly is in the top three or four most physical backs upon first contact. Carson is a hard runner, and has a knack for running through initial contact. He’s not pretty but we enjoy watching his effort.

• The Minnesota defense played an outstanding game on the road. We were very impressed by their discipline against all of the shifts, motion and misdirection by the Seattle offense. The Vikings defense stayed very patient and disciplined through out the game. This is a Super Bowl defense looking for an offense.

• If the Vikings are going to get better, they have to make a decision as to what they want to be on offense. Last week, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer expressed his frustration at the lack of rushing attempts in the game versus the Patriots. But while he’s frustrated, the Vikings don’t do much to show that they are committed to the run with their design. For example, the Vikings have an underwhelming offensive line. If they really want to run the ball, perhaps they should line up in multiple tight-end formations a bit more often. Additionally, the Vikings also might want to use a true fullback more often. Interestingly, when the Vikings injected a fullback into an offensive series, they promptly completed their first deep ball in this game.

Making matters worse, offensive coordinator John DeFilippo was fired Tuesday morning. Zimmer and the remaining offensive staff need to figure out something quickly because every team left on their schedule will follow the blueprint that the Patriots used against them in week 13. Wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen will get doubled, and defenses will only rush four and dare the Vikings to run the ball.

• The Seahawks may no longer have the Legion of Boom, but they do have some very promising young defenders. Everyone knows about linebacker Bobby Wagner, but cornerback Shaquille Griffin should also get a lot of praise. He is one of the best rising young corners in the game. He has excellent ball skills and is a very willing tackler as well.

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Headcoachranking.com assigns a grade to the in-game performance of NFL head coaches each week. Our knowledgeable graders analyze each head coach’s performance in 5 key areas of decision making. After determining their “HCR” (Head Coach Ranking), we rank them from best to worst. HCR rankings are posted every Tuesday of the NFL season, and fans will be able to track each coach’s performance throughout the season.